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The Resurrection of Carvāka
Krishna S. Arjunwadkar
THE INTELLECTUAL
"The intellectual should constantly disturb, should bear witness to the misery of the world, should be provocative by being independent, should rebel against all hidden and open pressures and manipulations, should be the chief doubter of systems....and for this reason, an intellectual cannot fit into any role that might be assigned to him...and essentially doesn't belong anywhere he stands out as an irritant wherever he is."
Quoted by Alan Clements in The Voice of Hope by Aung San Suu Kyi (Penguin Books, 1997; p. 92).
(Abbr.: DPC stands for Debi Prasad Chattopadhyaya. p stands for page numbers from Lokayata. For consistency, I have used diacritical marks irrespective of their use or otherwise in the original works.)
Prologue :
Literature on Cārvāka
Since Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya (DPC) published his Lokayata: A Study in Ancient Indian Materialism (People's Publishing House, 1959), interest in Cārvāka alias Lokāyata seems to have been revived at least in Maharashtra. With the solitary exception of Sadashiv Athavale's work. Cārvāka Itihāsa va Tattvajñāna (Vāī 1958), all recent studies are postLokayata. Among them may be listed
(1) Cārvāka-darśana (1982, 1987),
(2) Astika-siromaṇī Cārvāka (1992), and
(3) Vaidika Paramparā viruddha Cārvāka (Jan.-Mr. 1994 issue of the
